Wednesday, July 12, 2023
Epitaph of Dionysios
Corpus Inscriptionum Graecarum II 2237 (Chios, 2nd century BC) =
Werner Peek, Griechische Vers-Inschriften, Vol. I: Grab-Epigramme (Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 1955),
p. 260, # 945 (my translation):
For "Leben als Stadionlauf" see Johannes Nollé, "Grabepigramme und Reliefdarstellungen aus Kleinasien,"
Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 60 (1985) 117-135 (at 133-135).
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As I was passing into the seventeenth year of my life,Richard Hunter, Greek Epitaphic Poetry: A Selection (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022), pp. 101-102 (click once or twice to enlarge):
Fate snatched me away to the chambers of Persephone;
for god wanted me only to sprint in the torch-race of life,
but to run no further the long course of old age;
I, Dionysios, just now blooming in youthful prime
and in the columns of the Muses, have come to Hades.
But, o father and mother, forsake bitter lamentation;
for Fate established this end-post of life for me.
ἕβδομον εἰς δέκατόν τε βίου λυκάβαντα περῶντα
Μοῖρά με πρὸς θαλάμους ἅρπασε Φερσεφόνας·
λαμπάδα γὰρ ζωᾶς με δραμεῖν μόνον ἤθελε δαίμων,
τὸν δὲ μακρὸν γήρως οὐκέτι θεῖν δόλιχον·
ἄρτι δ' ἐφηβείαις θάλλων Διονύσιος ἀκμαῖς 5
καὶ σελίσιν Μουσῶν ἤλυθον εἰς Ἀΐδαν.
ἀλλὰ πάτερ μᾶτέρ τε, προλείπετε πικρὸν ὀδυρμόν·
τέρμα γὰρ εἴς με βίου Μοῖρ' ἐπέκρανε τόδε.
